IT retail buying habits in the Gulf

We have recorded the growth of the IT Retail sector in Saudi Arabia and in the UAE over the last year through TNS Tracker Plus.

This is a syndicated tracking tool that monitors brand health of over 20 Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) product categories, banking/financial sectors, fast food restaurants and electronic retail outlets. The IT Retail sector as has been defined within the scope of TNS Tracker Plus is as follows:

1. Any Mobiles: specialised retail outlets stocking and selling mobile phones, PDA’s and other related accessories like Cellucom, Jumbo, Axiom, Aptech, i2, Mashael Al Khaleej, Al Hadad, etc.

2. Any Electronics: specialised retail outlets stocking and selling music systems, home theaters and related components, laptops/computers and related accessories like Jumbo, Jacky’s, Compu Me, Sharaf Digital, Virgin, Jarir Book Store, Extra, etc.

3. Any Supermarket/Hypermarket: retail outlets stocking and selling mobile phones, PDA’s, music systems, home theatres, laptops/computers and other related accessories like Carrefour, Hyper Panda, Lulu Hypermarket, Geant, Giant, etc.

Please note that the above classification is subjective and not an expert defined sector.

The IT Retail sector is unlike any other product sector, primarily because of the higher monetary outlay and the resulting associated perceived risk.

Yet like any other product sector, it has pervaded the life of people in this region, as this year 96 per cent of people in KSA and 90 per cent in the UAE have purchased either ‘any mobile’ or ‘any electronic’ items from any of the pre-defined IT Retail outlets.

This should not be surprising given that the slew of launches of flat HDTV screens like LCD and Plasma have revolutionised this market like no other.

Breakthrough new technologies have always managed to keep the IT/Electronic sector constantly in the mainstream news with companies like Apple further fine tuning this art into a super fine launch strategy with products like the iPod and most recently iPhone, giving it an iconic status. The digital revolution has finally come of age and undoubtedly the IT Retail sector has a fuelling influencing factor in this growth.

The ‘attractive potential’ (total awareness) of IT Retail is thus universal (100 per cent) in both KSA & UAE. And it is also interesting to note that the current purchases of ‘any mobiles’ from the established IT Retail outlets in KSA are significantly higher than purchases of ‘any electronics’ from the same establishments, giving credence to the view that mobile phones & PDA’s are the real category drivers that pull in people to a store (see Table 1). The scenario is unique and different in UAE.



The population demographic distribution in the UAE is approximately opposite to that of Saudi Arabia - the Asian population forms the majority in the UAE while the local Arab population in KSA forms the majority, which makes the marketing of “high-end” goods that much more difficult.

The other very important aspect of purchasing any mobile or any electronic items in the UAE is the emergence of supermarkets and hypermarkets as an attractive alternative, as shown above, both amongst Arabs & Asians. This does not seem to be the case in KSA.

The above purchase behavior leads us to another question of the extent that promotions play in driving peoples’ brand choice. From our tracking research, we have asked people whether promotions are an important criterion for brand selection.

Table 2 below suggests that promotions play a bigger role in the choice of brands in the UAE, especially amongst Asians. Maybe, this could be the reason why supermarkets and hypermarkets are popular destinations for shopping. By their very role, supermarkets and hypermarkets have wider catchments than a specialised store.

In the process of doing the weekly shop, people will stroll over to the mobile and electronic sections to check out the display, perhaps leading to a higher probability of purchase due to higher numbers in this process.



Promotions thus are an important consideration amongst Asians to purchase IT/electronic items, accounting to 56 per cent, though the reading may be treated with caution given small base.

Retailers should note that supermarkets/hypermarkets in Abu Dhabi play a relatively larger role in purchase of IT/ electronic items in comparison to the other two locations. People in Dubai relatively prefer to purchase mobile phones and electronic items while people in Sharjah prefer to purchase electronic items only.

To summarise, we have seen that purchase behavior of IT/electronic items are different in KSA & UAE, maybe due to the differing population composition. The differing populations have different needs of retail outlets when purchasing IT/ electronic items and hence promotions play an important part in decision making between them.

Methodology
Field work is conducted monthly amongst a fixed target audience. Data for reporting is rolled over three months and the reporting sample sizes are 600 in KSA and 450 in UAE.